Things that are most important to me in life:
1. Spending quality time with family, friends and loved ones
2. Traveling and exploring the world
3. Enjoying experiences that broaden my mind and enrich my soul
4. Learning, learning, learning
5. Reading
6. Music
7. Netflix

Here’s the conundrum, none of these things are materialistic, but ALL of these things need money and sacrificing a portion of one’s time.

To get money, one must work. Work essentially follows the following formula. I, the employee will trade you, the employer, my time, skills and energy to help your business. In exchange, you, the employer, will give me, the employee a dollar amount that fairly or unfairly represents my value to you.

This formula gets more complicated if you’re self-employed, but since most of us aren’t, we’ll stick the employee/employer formula.

When one works, one spends a large portion of their waking life at work, thus severely limiting one’s ability to do the things one enjoys most; spending quality time with family and friends, traveling and exploring the world, binge watching shows on Netflix, etc. Also, you can’t pay for rent and food and shoes so that sucks.

Possible solutions to aforementioned existential connundrum
1. Become completely independent without needing food, water, clothing, shelter by accidentally falling into a vat of radioactive waste that renders you immortal and self-sustaining.
2. Find a profession that inspires and excites you so that you don’t feel like you are continuously running on a hamster wheel.
3. Continue on your evolutionary path towards enlightenement through knowledge, gratitude, meditation and being present in the now.
4. Help others and get over your first world problems.
5. Ice cream.